The Citizens Committee for Better Medicine is proud to present “The Wallach Revolution – (An Unauthorized Biography of a Medical Genius)”. The book is now available and chronicles the challenges, successes, and unique perspective of Dr. Joel D Wallach, a true pioneer in the field of science-based, clinically verified medical nutrition. (No portion of the content on this site may be exhibited, used or reproduced by any means without express written permission of the publisher.) Click HERE to get your copy of this brand new book!

Chapter 6 Page 1

The Cystic Fibrosis Discovery Suppressed by Yerkes Primate Center

Although educated in conventional veterinary medicine, Joel Wallach has never been one to confine his thinking to convention. A plain spoken Missourian with tremendous scientific acumen and a highly inquisitive mind, Wallach did not limit his focus to veterinary findings when assessing vexing ailments of animals. Since veterinary school Wallach has been a comparative pathologist, assessing human and animal data in determining the cause of death of animals presented to him for autopsy.

Like other great Missourians, Wallach prefers to call it like it is, and not as others might prefer it to be. His genius in comparative pathology combined with his frankness and realism got him into big trouble at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Department of Pathology, in Atlanta, Georgia on the campus of Emory University.

After Wallach left the Brookfield Zoo, the Memphis Zoo, and the Jacksonville Zoo, he went to work as a pathologist with Yerkes in 1977. Dr. Harold McClure was Wallach’s supervisor in the pathology department. From his dealings with McClure, Wallach understood that if he, Wallach, made a discovery at Yerkes, he would be the lead author on the scientific publications about that discovery and McClure would be the co-author. If, on the other hand, McClure made the discovery, Wallach would be the co-author.

In November of 1977, McClure went on vacation. During the two weeks while McClure was away, Wallach was called upon to examine the cadaver of a diminutive and anemic six month old male rhesus monkey. The monkey had white hair instead of the normal grayish green and was one of approximately twenty-six in the NASA experiment at Yerkes. Wallach performed an autopsy and considered all of the forensic details.

Ordinarily veterinary pathologists review the veterinary pathology literature in search of disease causes. Wallach pursued an unconventional and far more sophisticated approach based on his training in comparative pathology. Since veterinary school, Wallach had made it a practice to review the human pathology literature for clues into the causes of animal diseases. It was that approach, in this instance, that brought about a profound discovery not only of benefit to animal populations but also to human. It is a discovery that should have netted Wallach international acclaim and perhaps would have but for a set of unfortunate circumstances that led to an official rejection of the discovery.